License issue drives lawmakers

Undocumented immigrants

Posted: Sunday, September 28, 2003

By Joe Johnsonjoe.johnson@onlineathens.com

Stella Sailors, foreground, of Catholic Social Services talks with Enriqueta (who did not want her last name used), an undocumented immigrant who drives without a license or insurance. There is an effort to change state law to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses legally. Proponents contend the change would make undocumented immigrants into safer drivers, and allow them to insure their vehicles.

While driving to work one morning in 2001, an Athens woman was stopped by a police officer because the co-worker accompanying her was not wearing a seat belt. She soon found herself in jail.

That was because like hundreds, if not thousands, of undocumented immigrants living in Athens-Clarke County, the woman was driving without either a license or insurance.

Because many people will out of necessity drive with or without licenses and insurance, some have been pushing to change Georgia law to allow undocumented immigrants to legally obtain licenses. Proponents of changing the law believe that the immigrants would become better and more responsible drivers by having licenses, which would also permit them to insure their vehicles.

Toward that end, the Athens-area Hispanic Concerns Committee last week held a public forum on the issue, attended by about 250 people and featuring state Sen. Sam Zamarripa, D-Atlanta, and state Rep. Pedro Marin, D-Duluth, both of whom have sponsored legislation to make it easier for undocumented immigrants to obtain licenses.

''Our job is to make sure people are safe on our highways and streets, and the immediate issue needs to be handled on the federal level,'' Zamarripa said. ''But while that is being done, we need to make sure those driving on the roads of Georgia have two things: a driver's license so that they know the rules of the road, and insurance.''

Sen. Sam Zamarripa, D-Atlanta

About 40 percent of the approximately 12,000 Latinos living in Athens-Clarke County are undocumented immigrants, according to Stella Sailors, director of Catholic Social Services, which provides social services to Athens' Hispanic community. By those estimates, some 4,800 Hispanics are living here illegally.

The Athens woman who was jailed after being stopped for a seat belt violation said she has continued to drive despite not having a license or insurance.

''I need to drive to work,'' said the woman, who would identify herself only as Enriqueta, a 46-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico. ''I need to go to the store, to do errands.''

Already strapped for cash - Enriqueta is now unemployed - by continuing to drive illegally, the woman faces a repeat of what happened two years ago. She had to put up $600 to be bonded out of jail, and pay $350 in fines for the motor vehicle offenses, plus another $180 to get her car out of the impound lot.

Earlier this year, the state Senate passed a bill with amendments by Zamarripa which would have granted undocumented immigrants the right to legally obtain driver's licenses. The bill was later tabled by the Senate's Republican majority.

Rep. Pedro Marin, D-Duluth

''I need to bring (the bill) back, and will do that through the committee process or from the floor of the Senate,'' Zamarripa vowed.

The Atlanta-based Southeastern Legal Foundation, which describes itself as a public-interest law firm and policy center, had opposed the bill's passage with the argument that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks highlighted the need to restrict access to officially sanctioned identification such as licenses. Authorities have said that some of the 19 hijackers improperly obtained driver's licenses and state IDs in Florida, Virginia and New Jersey and used them to open bank accounts, rent cars and apartments, and register at flight schools.

''A citizen from another state applying for a Georgia driver's license goes through a process that is cursory at best, but is in fact a background check,'' said Todd Young, police director for the Southeastern Legal Foundation. ''With illegal immigrants, no such background check is even possible because there is no documentation, so we would have no earthly way of knowing if that person had any driving record problems or criminal history.''